I arrived to Curacao 5 days before the event, as I wanted to train a little bit. I was shocked when I went down to the event site and I was like in the middle of nowhere. What’s more there was no single sign of wind! Locals said April is the windy season, but this year they had raining season twice longer then usual and this may have caused no wind conditions. The forecast was good so we hoped for some gusts on next days. Unfortunately mother nature gave us only 2 hours sailing in low wind conditions (10-11 knots). The first day of the Worlds came and we were all very surprised! The event location changed from nothing to a real windsurf city! There were containers for equipment, tents in which we had lunches and many attractions for audience like: SUP races, tow-in freestyle sessions to watch etc. So… we had everything, just the wind was lacking… Furthermore the forecast just dropped!

On the first three days there was no smallest gust. On Saturday it was a little bit better and at 1PM they measured the limit of 11 knots on comity boat so all competitors went out. Unfortunately it was so gusty, that they tried to do first hit 3 times with no success. They let us go back to the beach. At 4:10 PM, AP went down again, and the first race of the event started exactly 20 minutes after that. I was in 2nd heat of Youth’s so I had another 20 minutes to start, as Masters were scheduled first. I had a perfect start but on the first buoy we got to know that there was over early. Fortunately these was the French guy, not me.

Second start and everything went fine. I had perfectly clear start and was leading from start till finish. Before the winners final we had about 40 minutes waiting, cause of U13,U15 and U17 heats, so I had a little time to take a breath. I got stressed as besides one French guy (who did over early in semi-final) there were just fast guys in the final. Hopefully I managed to control myself and concentrate. I did perfect start and managed to win that heat… I was so much concentrated that day and did the best heats of my life. I have never felt like this. It was hard (wind just on the limit of 11knots and lots of good racers), but I did it. I won the first round of slalom.

Needed to stay focused – the forecast showed 20 knots for the last day! But what happened? Rain came and stopped the wind. They kept us on standby till 5PM and then there was the end. I’m really happy with my result although it was flat, but gusty and the wind was sometimes just on the limit, so – all in all - hard to race. I had known that that one race might have been crucial and I had to do immaculate starts and jibes, and I managed! ! I became 2011 Youth Slalom World Champion!

Bio:
Name: Radoslaw
Surname: Kurczewski
Nickname: Gutek
Born: 29/03/1993
Started windsurfing: 2002
Started competing: 2008
Best Results: Junior World Champ 2009, Youth World Champ 2011, Several Polish Junior and Youth Champ
Boards: Angulo Magnum 2010
Sails: MauiSails TR-6

Gutek’s closes plans are Worlds in Texel, Polish Cup and Youth Europeans in France. Let’s cross fingers for his future – he is the one to go big!